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January 30, 2013

Forgot for a minute this was a monster girls challenge. Oh well. So I started doodling the old cyclops from those movies, then thought about Cyclops the x-man, but then remembered the best cyclops ever, Leela from Futurama.

January 25, 2013

Aliens are another one of those things that I think of as sexless... though I feel like E.T. was probably a guy. Then again that really long limbed thing that came out last in Close Encounters I feel like was maybe a girl. Both generally sexless though...

Anyway, aliens are dumb. Especially if they have issues with water, a la Signs. Oops, guess that's a spoiler, but it's so old I figure that it doesn't matter at this point.

I prefer to think that if we got aliens though, the water hating kind might be good, otherwise we are pretty much doomed.

January 23, 2013

I had meant to do this project a while back, but somehow it had gotten lost in the pile of toys for newer babies...

Anyway, better late than never, plus it is hard to deny when they send you a cute video of their kid asking for a "dinosaurus" and giggling.

I used this free pattern from All About You.com for the dino. One GIANT thing to note, that cause me a few problems, is that this pattern is written in UK terms and has a few typos as well. For those that do not want to look it up, here is what you really need to know: The pattern says "dc" and says that means double crochet... A UK double crochet is a US single crochet. Don't ask me why, it just is.

I did not like the color scheme first off, it was too baby-ish and this is for a boy. So green and red and dark green felt better. I also changed the arms so that I could use what I have learned from previous patterns and use a color change row in the back loop only to make a nice hard line to give a bit of definition to the sleeve versus the arm. I also changed the direction the arm is constructed, their is from the fingers to shoulder, mine goes the other way so that the white properly overlaps the green as a shirt would be over the skin. If you do it the other way it looks like the skin is popping out of a shirt that is too tight for it.

Arms
5 sc in magic circle, in color of sleeve (white)
2sc in each around 10sts
2 rows of 10 sts
Switch to green
One row of 10 sts in back loops only
Six more rows of 10 sts, stuff and sew end closed flat
Leave a really long Green tail and use it to Embroider three bumps on hand for claws.*

*This is another thing I changed. They suggested a color change for the "fingers" of the arm and then to use black to give it lines to show the three fingers. I wanted it to feel more like claws so I left a really long tail and just looped over and over and over to get three distinct bumps for fingers. I did the same for the toes, but used the darker color to make those feet talons a bit more distinguishable.

Fingers are bumps.

Here is the pattern for the legs. This is where I found the typo in the decreasing section, so I rewrote it for my own sanity, since I needed to make two that match.Legs6sc in magic circle in green of body
2 sc in each (12)
2 sc in one stitch, one sc in next, around (18)
2 sc in one, one sc in next 2 (24)
Three rows of 24
Sc in next 11, decrease, sc in next 9, decrease (22)
Sc in next 10, decrease, sc in next 8, decrease (20)
Sc in next 9, decrease, sc in next 7, decrease (18)
Sc in next 1, decrease, repeat around (12)
Five rows of 12
Leave tail to sew up opening. Stuff! Bind off.
Attach dark green to corner and leave long tail to make claws for toes.

In progress with head and arms attached.

Here is something I want to share: the way you change colors can make a difference in the way it looks and feels. Especially for clothing meeting skin.

See how the green neck looks like it is under the red of the shirt neck? That is because I changed to the green color by crocheting in the back loops only, so the nice line of red is the front loops of the crochet. If you don't, it looks like the rows in the shirt where it meets and kind of makes those ^ shapes. Since I was working from the butt to the neck for the body, I had to cheat the bottom row of the shirt. That row is a regular color change like the middle shirt rows, but I embroidered a line over it to make the shirt bottom feel right to my mind. These are the things that make it special and perfect and give it charm, that no one will notice but you. Do it anyway.

Oh almost forgot! The shirt I made is striped. Theirs is solid... and boring. I used their pattern, figured out that there were 12 rows for the shirt and simply changed colors every two rows despite what the pattern says.

The face uses black for eyebrows and nostrils. White yarn for a crooked toothy smile. (Another thing I changed, that smile, they had a dark line of black, but T-rex needs teeth.) The dark green of the toes matches the dark green of the spikes.

January 18, 2013

So you might remember I made Mr. Skeesbears for a few of his students.

Well I want one dammit. However, mine could not be the same as theirs, that would encroach upon the specialness of those three. So, I had seen that the creator of the pattern that I loosely based the bears on had made some fat bears. So I studied the pictures and figured out her ratio for the size of the head versus the pants and feet and loosely applied that ratio to my doll.

I guess her yarn is thicker or these are worked smaller than mine.
Her proportions are: Number of Head rows is equal to the pants and feet.
I changed that for mine to be: head equals shirt plus pants.
So then: if shirt 5 rows, pants 5 rows --> head 10 rows after increase to size.

So for the body/head:
6 sc in magic circle
Increasing every row from 12 stitches to 60 stitched in a normal flat circle.
Your last row of increasing will be: Sc in 8, 2sc in next (60sc)
Sc around 60 for 15 Rows
Switch to light blue do one row in front loops only, four chainse before the end chain two
do the following: treble crochet in same, then double crochet, then half double. Then go back to
sc around, in last three on the other end do a half double, double and then
treble, chain three and slip stitch into last. I left three unused sc in the center between both collar points as a space for a tie. (These two rows make collar.)
Go back into the empty loops to make the shirt underneath the collar. Do 6 rows of single crochet around. It will lie underneath and then come out underneath the collar you made.

First half of pattern done with collar.

By using the front loops for the collar, you can use the back loops to continue the shirt/body.

Switch to gray for 4 rows to start making the pants. All these rows should maintain the 60 stitches.
Split at middle with 6 chain to make the seam for between the pant legs. This chain of 6 should run from the front center of the doll body to the back center.
Do 2 rows of gray for pant legs. These leg rows will have about 36-40 stitches. Whatever you have make them both the same. It's OK to fudge and add a few extra stitches along the center chain. Don't forget to go back and add the two rows of gray to the second leg!
Switch to brown for feet on bottom of both legs.
One row of 40, two rows of *1 sc, 1 decrease* repeating around.
Decrease every stitch last row, bind off foot.

Arms
Chain 16 in light blue of shirt, join to form a loop.
5 rows sc in each
Switch to brown yarn
Sc in each, back loop only
One sc, decrease around till done, bind off
Stuff, fold in half and stitch along top. Attach to sides below where the collar lies. Yes, you could put the arm in the space underneath the collar, but then it make it stick up like a neck tutu and not a collar. (Yes I did this. It was awful. Had to rip it out. Carefully.)

Make tie in black: chain 7, skip two next to hook, hdc in five, slip stitch to first chain, 4 double
crochet in stitch, bind off, shape and stitch top shell shape down to doll.

Make snout in cream: following the oval pattern in the original monkey pattern.
Ears are the same as well, except I made mine one row smaller than hers.

Details in dark brown: nose, mouth, beard, eyebrows

I am toying with adding a Belt in black, as well as Suspenders in black.
Here is how I think I could make suspenders...

Suspenders:
Chain 5, turn with three chain for button hole and sc in each chain back up.
Slip stitch in first chain, do shell stitch (five double crochet in one)
From last double crochet, chain enough to go over shoulders, note that
number, turn with three chain for button hole and sc back to shell
Slip stitch in tops of middle three double crochet of shell
In last double crochet of shell chain same number for suspender, chain three for button hole sc back again. Bind off.

Since I have two other projects now in the queue, I will leave off suspenders for the moment and move on to those other projects.